Kurosaki Station
by AADale
Summary: my speculation about Isshin Kurosaki


Kurosaki Station

my speculation about Ichigo's dad Isshin

A/N: Wikipedia says that there's a Kurosaki Train Station in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan, built in 1891.

Disclaimer: You know. The usual.

/

Isshin Kondo turned to his friend and fellow captain Shunsui Kyoraku and asked him, "you never learned to speak English, did you?"

"Nope. Why?"

Isshin looked at the sign reading "Welcome to Fukuoka" in English and Japanese script. He shrugged. "Nothing. Just a sophisticated joke that you wouldn't understand." Isshin had always had an interest in words. He'd been on a series of assignments in Europe over the past five years, and had picked up quite a few languages.

The two men were riding together this evening on an otherwise empty train that smelled of coal. The next stop was Kurosaki Station. Built in 1891, the station was nearly thirty years old.

"Kurosaki Station." Isshin mumbled to himself as he looked at the map. "Kurosaki – Kurosaki – dark saki – dark sake?" Isshin said to his friend, "you know, we drink too much sake."

"That's what Retsu says."

"No, I mean when you, me, and Yoshi go out drinking, it's always sake." Yoshi was Isshin's nickname for Jushiro Ukitake. "We should drink whiskey some time. Have you ever had Scotch whiskey? Or Irish? You should go to Ireland. Oh, and the Irish women. They're amazing. Redheaded women with eyes like emeralds."

"I thought you preferred Japanese women."

"I do! French women, too. I prefer all women. Every single woman in the world, I prefer."

"If you stuck to _single_ women, your life would be a lot easier."

"Ha! But I tell you, for the right woman, I'd settle down. I'd give all this up in a moment."

"One woman!" Shunsui looked amused at the idea. "I have trouble believing that. But tell me about this one woman who can tame you."

"She'd have long hair, delicate features…are you sure that Yoshi's a man?"

"Yup. I've seen him having sex with your mom. Very athletic, both of them."

"You pig. But you wait and see. You're going to settle down too one day, with that Nanao of yours, and become sober and respectable."

"Nanao? She's just a girl. You're a pervert, Isshin."

"No, I'm not. I just notice pretty girls."

"That's the definition of 'pervert'."

"Mark my words: Nanao is just your type. She's going to grow up to be a beauty, and you'll be following her around like a love-struck schoolboy."

/

Shunsui Kyoraku and "Yoshi" Ukitake had discovered Isshin in a low-end bar in District 50 of East Rukongai. He was a young fellow at the time, tall, lanky, and full of energy. What had started out as three men sitting at a bar became a drinking contest. Ukitake bowed out after 10 hours. That's when Isshin and Shunsui started drinking seriously. They belted down shot after shot, bottle after bottle. When the bartender ran out, he ran to another joint down the road and bought their entire supply. Shunsui and Isshin finished that, too. It took them nearly three days, but they finished off two bars' worth of booze.

Of course, no normal being can drink like that. Captain Kyoraku had been training for hundreds of years. But this Kondo was different. Jushiro reasoned out that he was processing alcohol the way a few residents of Rukongai processed food. That meant that Isshin had spiritual energy – a lot of it, based on the bar tab.

So Shunsui and Jushiro asked him if he'd be interested in becoming a shinigami.

"Those are the guys with uniforms. Women love uniforms, right?" Isshin hadn't noticed that his newfound drinking buddies were wearing captains' robes.

"Yes", Shunsui said, "and the women in Seireitei are all beautiful. They'd look up to you. You'd be a hero in their eyes."

"A hero? Sign me up!" shouted Isshin.

They waited until Isshin sobered up completely (three days), but by then Kyoraku and Ukitake had started drinking again, so it ended up being a week before all three were sober, and the two captains introduced Isshin Kondo to the Shinigami Academy's admissions board. Isshin entered the Academy, where he proved to be no great student but surprisingly intelligent. Upon graduation, he quickly moved through the ranks of the Seventh Division.

The three men were inseparable. They were big, loud, and drunk, chasing women and killing Hollows. Isshin's enthusiasm overcame Shunsui's laziness and Jushiro's occasional good judgment. Everyone knew them, especially around Second Division headquarters, where they spent a few nights in prison. Some people resented Isshin, the drinking buddy of two captains who always seemed to land a promotion. But once they saw him in combat, and felt the release of his spiritual pressure, they understood that his advancement was due to talent, not connections.

It only took Kondo forty years out of the Academy to become the Captain of the Seventh Division. His division bore the brunt of the Great War in Europe, then the Spanish Flu. During those years, Kondo spent most of his time on missions in the World of the Living, and found himself losing touch with his two best friends. So he was happy that he'd managed to talk Kyoraku into joining him on this evening's little adventure.

/

"You know, speaking of Retsu, I heard that she's looking for a new third seat." Isshin tried to sound casual. "I'm thinking that I could apply."

So this is why he invited me here, Shunsui thought to himself.

"You're not a healer."

"I bet I could learn. Maybe I could just oversee maintenance projects for a while. And doesn't Retsu always say that her division can fight, too? I could probably help out training them."

"Hmm. You've given this some thought. Have you talked to her yet?"

"Do you think she'd be interested?"

"You're captain-level. Any captain would want someone with that experience and skill."

"But no one quits a captain's position to become a third seat." Isshin seemed to be arguing against himself. Was he torn about this decision, or just looking for support?

"Most captains are too arrogant to go back to taking orders. You could handle it, though. But none of that's the point, is it?" Shunsui gave his friend an opening.

Isshin turned to look out the window of the train, and silently watched the scenery go by. "I'm sick of death", he said at last. "I'm sick of being a killer. I'm just tired of the whole cycle of death. Maybe if I could do some healing, this feeling would go away?"

Isshin continued to look out the window, waiting for his friend to reply. Shunsui stayed quiet.

"I guess I owe you an apology, huh?" Isshin said.

"What do you mean?"

"You and Yoshi have taken care of me. Stood up for me. I feel like I'm turning my back on you guys if I stop being a fighter."

"Nonsense. You've earned everything you've gotten. Besides, if you were in the Fourth Division, you'd be around more. And when the real men came back from serious work, you could put your hair in a bun and take care of them."

That's when Shunsui noticed that his friend was crying. Shunsui had never felt so helpless as he did at that moment, looking at his friend in pain. There was nothing he could think of to say.

"It's just...that influenza was _bad_", Isshin said, his voice weak.

"Yeah, that's what I heard."

The train came to a stop and the two captains debarked at Kurosaki Station. They proceeded onto what was an otherwise trivial assignment.

/

Kyoraku remembered that conversation on the train for a long time. He never told Ukitake about it, even as close as the three of them were. He didn't like the idea of keeping a secret, but it just didn't feel right to talk about. Kondo did become the third seat of the Fourth Division, although Unohana continued to address him as "captain" and made him wear his captain's haori. Still, he never was the same, and no amount of healing ever seemed to be enough to make up for the sense of loss he carried from the 1910's.

Decades later, when Kondo went on a mission to Japan and simply disappeared, Kyoraku never asked why. He didn't have any specific knowledge of what happened, but he couldn't say that he was surprised.

And when a brash young man with spiky hair and overflowing spiritual energy showed up and saved Soul Society, Kyoraku had to smile when he heard that his last name was Kurosaki.


End file.
